Zoo Day and Eve Rice says, “don’t forget!”

It is a beautiful summer morning here in Los Angeles, the temperature is hovering around 77 degrees and is not expected to climb too much higher. It is one of those days that makes you want to travel outdoors and explore. I wonder what is going on at the zoo today? I have always loved the zoo. It is often the one place we forget exists until that one day in summer when the park and mall have worn their course that the idea hits- let’s go to the zoo. I am in one of those moods today, and heck, I live about 20 minutes from the Los Angeles Zoo. Can you believe it? I didn’t know such a place existed here, either. And yes, they have real animals and trees and flowers and plants and ponds, and yes! in the center of the metropolis of cars, cement and strip malls. Today I proclaim to be Zoo Day! Then the realization that it is still only Wednesday quickly and harshly smack you across the head. Emails, voicemails, distributors, vendors, colleagues, family, friends and often the neighbors all vying for a piece of your time and frankly, you don’t have time for any of them, but we must find time anyway.

I often wish I could be young again with those nice long summer vacations and all the major holidays off. But do I really now? It is so hard being a kid and I think back to the stress over homework, the Sunday night blues, the practices, the recitals, the pop quizzes and the trying to find your place in the animal kingdom called the playground each day at 10:15am. So, I retract my wish and go on about my day, but I still wish I could muster the courage and the guts to turn off my phone, draw the blinds and call out sick- and make my day, a zoo day!

Far-fetched and reality simply will not allow for this type of revolution to occur, but ponder this, have we forgotten to live a life where freedom and learning thrive? Have we become so programmed now that spontaneity is felt to be a crime? Maybe it’s time we evaluate our own personal ROI and take a minute to invest in us and take the time to see the eagle fly.

So today, there will be no zoo, at least in physical form, but harken the days of my past, the zoo, here I come.

I invite you to escape with me, to take a personal day, to find a quiet place to read and pick up a book from yesterday. Off to the zoo I go and Eve Rice will take me there. Thank you, Eve, for reminding me, once as a child and now many years later, to never forget the person inside that makes the “zoo” a priority.

Today, I go to the zoo on page and memory too, to the place Rice took me to, when I was two years over two.

a message composed…david

Please leave me a comment on where you would like to go for your “Zoo Day!” And if you would like more positive and uplifting content, even kids could read, I invite you to subscribe. Feel free to email me at david.faustina@ifmoment.com.

Written with them in mind...

Books can be lasting and children’s books are an example of something that can teach long after it is placed back onto the shelf. We celebrate those boxed up books that the young learner one day outgrew. For we know that one day soon the memory will prevail. Those books once held so tight, flood back into the present day to read to the next of kin a story that will become their heart’s delight.

I wrote A Butterfly’s Kiss with this in mind, and with a message that inspires and uplifts…giving your child a canvas for them to explore all the wonderful things they bring to life, each unique and beautiful.

David Faustina

David Patrick Faustina, the author, is a nonprofit executive and youth empowerment speaker. David started his career in ministry as the youth minister of a thriving congregation in the San Francisco Bay Area before joining Monster.com as one of their national speakers with the Making It Count Program. Recently, David relocated to Los Angeles and served as COO of a homeless service agency. David regularly consults on brand development and cause-based marketing. He has an identical twin brother, is called uncle by four amazing nephews and four beautiful nieces. David and his partner live in West Hollywood, California and continue to renew their Disneyland Annual Pass.
www.davidfaustina.com

IF Creative, LLC is the culmination of a combined 30 years in the nonprofit space and dedication to living a life filled with purpose and pasion mixed with our zeal for life and flair for the impossible and of course the belief that all life is a performace on the grandest stage, David Faustina and Eric Inman one day pondered, what if? Thus, IF was born and is a social incubator of content and connection that require conversation and community. We don't tell your story, we evoke yours and find the most innovative medium to share it. Our motto is simple- we are the narrarive for good. If you do good, have a product that does good or organization committed to good, we are the great choice to help you get your message of good out to the community. Visit us www.ifmoment.com and let's move beyond the if to the moments that demand to be shared.